Is a group blog a blorgy?

by Suw on April 5, 2004

I?m really pleased to say that so far the reaction to Four Corners, which launched yesterday, has been very positive. I?ve had lovely comments from Betsy Devine and Halley Suitt and am now officially chuffed as a small horse.
I love the concept of a group blog – the way that disparate people who have probably never even met can come together can create something fascinating, a synthesis of concepts, cultures and viewpoints that juxtapose ideas and observations in new and interesting ways. I can?t write as often for Four Corners as I would like, but being able to write good, solid essays and release them out into the wild for public consumption, well, that really rings my bells, I can tell you.
And it seems that we at Four Corners aren?t the only people to be having a bit of a blorgy at the moment. Halley Suitt has joined forces with seven other writers, including the always insightful David Weinberger, to launch Worthwhile.
Halley says on her own blog:

We are different from many magazines which also have websites or weblogs. We are starting with the weblog then adding the magazine, instead of the other way around.

Personally, I think that is totally the way forward. Blogs are here. Blogs are now. Print is out of date by the time it?s on the news-stands. Once group blogs get some momentum together and begin to permeate the subconscious of the average Jo(e) on the street, magazines are going to find themselves on thin ice. After all, why wait a month for a fix from your favourite writers when a blog can give you one right now?
I must say, though, there is some fantastic writing on Worthwhile:

…the thought of a stranger kneading my naked body makes me so tense that I give masseuses hand cramps. “It's like trying to massage a trampoline,” I've been told. This whole idea of paying someone to beat you because it feels so good when it stops reminds me just too much of all the worst jobs I've ever had.

Queen of the May

Every year, on May Day, a young woman is stolen away by the faeries to become their Queen for a year. This year, though, the faeries have bitten off more than they can chew. Shakti Nayar will do whatever it takes to get her own life as a botanist back. As she struggles to work out how to get home, she uncovers Faerie’s dark secret and finds that she is not the only human who needs saving.

The Lacemaker

All the threads looked the same to the innocent eye, but Maude could see the black heart running up through one strand as it wove its way through the lace roundel. She busied herself with tidying her bobbins as a customer browsed the lace mats on her stall.

“I’ll take this one,” the woman said, holding up a square piece, twelve inches across. Maude winced, picked up the piece she had just completed and held it out to the woman for her consideration.

Argleton

Matt is fascinated by the story of Argleton, the unreal town that appeared on GeoMaps but which doesn’t actually exist. When he and his friend and flatmate Charlie are standing at the exact longitude and latitude that defines Argleton, Matt sets in motion a chain of events that will take him places he didn’t know existed… and which perhaps don’t.

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